The future... when it's not closed!

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7: The National Aquatics Centre will probably be closed four months every year because it will be too expensive to operate.

Bernie Asbell, interim CEO of the National Sports, Centre gave a tour of the facility on Wednesday night to various swim, community and school groups.

The Centre, which will see a 50-metre pool in April, is in the final stages of being completed.

Asbell told Wednesday’s night group it is estimated that the BELCO bill for heating the Aquatics Centre will be $98,000 during the best warm weather months, making it financially unfeasible to operate from November through January.

“We’re not going to be open 12 months because it’s too expensive.”

Asbell said the National Aquatics Centre did not have to be open all the time and that Bermuda still have three perfectly good 25m pools to help meet the needs of the swimming community.

“We have an indoor pool in Bermuda that would be an ideal place to swim — Sandy’s 360. It’s much warmer.

“We want to encourage people to tap into the existing resources and that’s an outstanding existing resource.”

He said that may be a bit of drive for some people but the Sandy’s 360 facility is
a comfortable place to swim. 

Asbell added that if there “was a lot of interest and a lot of demand from east coast schools, if they want to come in and give us sufficient money, we could operate 12 months a year.”

He said there would be a marketing effort to make that happen.

“If we can get the internationals to pay for the cost operating in what I’ll call our weak offseason months, then we can offer it to Bermudians, that’s fabulous.

“We don’t want to absorb massive amounts of cost unless there are off-setting revenues that can help
us.”

He said most people would not use an outdoor pool in January because of the shiver factor. 

“We will be operating an eight month season. 

“If we can operate longer because others want to come in and pay us money, what a deal.”

Bermuda Female Athlete of the Year and top competitive swimmer Lisa Blackburn said: “Aesthetically it’s a nice looking pool but as an athlete when you look at things for a training facility there are some things that need a little bit more attention.”

She said it was positive that Bermuda now had a 50m pool.

“Another positive is that Government has spent a lot of money on this project and in order to have a swimming pool in a country of 60,000 people that’s a huge accomplishment.”

Blackburn said one of the problems was she felt insufficient research and discussion took place to create a facility that accommodate swimmers.

“I understand it’s meant to accommodate the whole community… the facility
is trying to please too
many sectors of the population. In doing so all those groups will suffer in the long run.”